Choosing the right managed service provider is essential to the long-term success of any business. Evaluating many factors, including depth and breadth of technical expertise, industry experience, and much more, is important.
It is also crucial to ensure that the MSP has the flexibility to tailor its services to your organization’s changing needs and a contract that allows this without restrictive penalties. This includes the ability to add services or curtail them as needed.
Experience
Finding a provider with both depth and breadth of experience is critical. A well-established MSP should have staff complementing each other to address your technology needs.
They should have expertise in on-premise, hybrid, and cloud infrastructures. They should also be able to provide you with security services that include monitoring, firewalls, email filtering, and antimalware software. Ask your potential MSP about their response times to ensure they can keep pace with the rapidly evolving threat landscape, including social engineering, fileless malware, and crypto mining.
A good MSP will also help you plan for the future with IT solutions that align with your business goals. Look for a firm that can assist you with yearly IT budget planning and identify ways to reduce your IT costs while maintaining robust data backups and a tested disaster recovery plan.
Flexibility
Managed Services Anchorage should have a flexible approach to its clients. An organization’s IT needs are bound to change over time, so an MSP should be able to adjust its scope of work. They should also be able to provide clients with the option to choose which services are more beneficial for their business.
An MSP’s flexibility reflects their company’s ability to innovate and keep up with technology. A business that offers the latest options will be a step ahead of its competitors.
Look for an MSP who can manage all your technology vendors for you and provides a central point of contact and escalation process in case of any issues. They should be able to offer a full suite of tools to allow transparency and accountability for the whole IT environment.
Cost
One of the main reasons facility managers choose to use managed services is to cut costs. Outsourcing technical services allows companies to shift IT expenses from a capital expense to an operating expense model.
While finding a cheap MSP may seem attractive, it often comes with hidden fees, poor communication, and network downtime. Ask your prospective MSP for their response times and whether they outsource work.
Also, look for a financially stable MSP that has been in business for a long time. This will help you feel confident they are here to stay and won’t disappear overnight. They should be able to provide you with their financial records, typically public information, so that you can verify their financial standing.
Reputation
Regardless of how good an MSP may look on paper, you want to find out about their reputation. Ask for references, testimonials, and endorsements from current clients.
It is also important to see if the provider can provide you with an account manager who will get to know your business. This will ensure that they can respond to your IT needs promptly and that you will have a consistent point of contact for all of your technical questions.
In addition, you want to ensure they can offer onsite support if needed. Many businesses need to have their IT providers physically in their building for a quick fix or to perform an audit. Ask if they have this capability and how long it takes to get someone there.
Security
Finding the right managed services provider to support your business’s network and security needs. Whether it’s ensuring regulatory compliance, minimizing downtime, or avoiding expensive network disaster repairs and fixes, your network security is too important to leave in the hands of just anyone.
Choose a firm available 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, to respond to your requests and needs. Additionally, look for a company with both depth and breadth of technical expertise.
Finally, check the provider’s core organizational values and CSR initiatives. This will help ensure they are a good cultural fit for your organization and will be committed to a long-term partnership. The best-managed services providers know that your business’s success is their success.